Is WIFI bad for kids?

Keep your microwave and go dig up an article on how they work. Microwave ovens have an internal reflective surface that allows the short beams of energy emitting from the magnetron to bounce around a lot. That's what makes the microwave oven work. Water molecules are dipole, and the energy's polarity switches 2.4 billion times a second, causing friction in the water molecules as they change orientation, heating the food.

This is distinct from ionizing radiation, in which emitted particles cause damage to, say, DNA, or which produce heat by tearing apart molecular or even atomic bonds and thus releasing energy.

The microwave oven's door is a screen which prevents the release of stray energy, too, by the way; the screen has a mesh that is designed to have openings below the wavelength of the microwaves. Which, by the way dissipate with the inverse square of the distance from their origin, meaning that by the time a stray wave (let's say 1 out of millions) were to emit from the door, it would have an almost unmeasurable amount of energy left in it, and it wouldn't actually cause your body to heat up, either.

The Wi-Fi scare is just that, too. You wrote "Though scientific research has been inconclusive to date," but that's too strong a statement. Inconclusive would indicate that there are health effects that are unexplained. In fact, all the credible, peer-reviewed research -- not studies that are announced with no outside review, which happens frequently -- of consumer-facing electromagnetic products like cell phones and other devices can connect *no* health effects to the presence (or absence) of radio frequencies.

For instance, a recent study looked at a large number of people who had bilaterally asymmetric brain tumors -- tumors that were on one side or the other of their head. They did extensive work to figure out which of those people were regular cell users and which side they typically talked on their phone (if any preference). They also took a control group with no known tumors. After extensive statistical work to determine memory bias (remembering talking on the side that has the tumor) and such, they found no causation. This kind of tumor would be the most likely outcome if there were a direct health effect because the radiation would be most intense in that position.

I don't discount the idea that some people may be sensitive to electromagnetic radiation, but they are exposed to that in everyday life at levels far above and at frequencies very close to what they would receive in proximity to a Wi-Fi adapter. Worse, with so much Wi-Fi around, you would expect that they would be incapable of walking into a home with a cordless phone (which typically spews more energy in less controlled ways that Wi-Fi) or almost any coffeeshop in the western world.

It's very easy to get a control and sensitive group of people and do double-blind tests in a faraday cage in which outside radiation could be shielded. Hasn't happened yet, so far as I know.

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If you're really worried about your microwave, pick up a tester like this:

http://testproducts.com/safecart/product_info.php/products_id/89?osCsid=bc2fdc7f1d7496f5a95f162de246cec0

Hopefully it'll just tell you it's fine and save you from having to buy another one. Pretty cheap peace of mind.

If you have a wifi network, it's almost the same frequency, you could hold this tester near the access point or the wireless computer to see how it compares to the microwave.

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I bought my first microwave in the very late 70's and I've had one ever since. We use it mainly for reheating and popcorn.

I don't know. My microwave is a couple of years old and the girls use it all the time.

On the list of things that frighten me, the microwave isn't even an honorable mention. As for WI-FI, I haven't had to deal with that one yet.

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You guys might want to move to another universe. We're constantly being bombarded with cosmic background microwaves. Amazing that we're even still alive. Microwaves only heat food because they excite water molecules in the food, because of the specific frequency that water molecules are excited at.

Want to buy a special tin-foil hat? That might help.

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We are totally moving to Mercury, stat.

I never claimed that I was rational.

Glenn, fabulous info. Thank you.

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I have an old microwave too, huge thing, it isn't dangerous! As for wifi i only find it to be unhealthy because more people are communicating with email then actaully reaching out and touching someone or calling. Everything and I do mean EVERYTHING we do is dangerous, even breathing and eating and drink something as "simple" as water.

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Kristin, this is why BB writers should steer clear of scientific articles - particularly those like this one which are only peripherally related to children. I urge you to delete this article, and to make wiser writing choices in the future. I know my limitations: I have absolutely no idea about the effects of wifi on children. Your fears may be well-founded, or they may be unwarranted. You and I do not know. So, I prefer to leave medical/scientific topics to those who are prepared to discuss them.

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